I will keepyou updated about those lessons.
You’re a piano teacher, huh?
You mention Allegra, I wonder if she’ll be able to get along with Otis.Will she be okay with a goofy, very chaotic, and loving dog?I’m not rushing things, but I’d like them to meet each other at some point.After all, you helped me name Otis.
I know, I know—we haven’t even crossed state lines together and I’m already imagining a cat-dog summit.But I think about things like that now.It’s strange.I used to avoid the idea of “someday.”Now I find myself planning for it in small ways.
Like how Otis might behave around a piano.Or if Allegra would judge my poor egg-boiling technique with one of those long, feline stares.
And yeah, a piano teacher.That explains a lot.The precision in your words, the rhythm in how you build a sentence.There’s a patience in your messages I didn’t recognize at first.Now I do.
Maybe one day we’ll meet, and you’ll play the piano while I play the guitar—unless you choose another instrument.I hope we can make that possible, I really do.
It’s nice, you know?Thinking about the future without it feeling like a punishment.I used to look ahead and only see everything I’d already ruined.Now, I see maybe ...a possibility.That’s because of you.
Also, Beth Orton?You’re trying to wreck me.That voice feels like being handed your own heart in a soft-spoken melody.
Want to trade songs again?I’m sending you “Dead Man Walking” by David Bowie.Not because it matches your mood, but because there’s something quietly electric in how it moves.Like someone crawling back toward life one riff at a time.Seems fitting.
ChapterNinety-Seven
Private Message | EchoZone Internal Chat
From: StringTheory27
To: DeadStrings
Date: August 27th, 1997, 8:03 AM
Subject: Re: Cooking lessons
I had to laugh—Allegratolerates no one and nothing, but I think she might find Otis amusing in the way cats find dogs mildly pitiful but entertaining.She pretends to be above it all, but then gets caught pawing at your cassette ribbon like she wasn’t just judging your life choices five minutes ago.
But here’s the thing: I think they could get along.Mostly because they’d share a particular kind of disdain.For instance, they might both hate it if I play sad songs on repeat.Allegra gives me this look that says, ‘You’re being melodramatic again,’ then she sits on the tape deck like a protest.Maybe Otis would just drop a toy in your lap, or bark until you change the song.
Music—they’d bond over that.Or at least over their humans who make everything a little too emotional when they cue up Leonard Cohen at midnight.
(Yes, I’m looking at you.Bowie was a gentler punch to the ribs but still left a bruise.In a good way.)
Also—I like that you’re imagining them meeting.That’s not nothing.That’s someday.You’re letting your brain go there, and I don’t think you realize how much that means.
Now, question: Are your cooking lessons teaching you anything useful yet?Can you fry an egg without starting a small fire?
Song for today: “I Know” by Fiona Apple.
Some days, I don’t feel like explaining why I feel the way I do, but I still want someone to get it.
Talk soon?—
ChapterNinety-Eight
Private Message | EchoZone Internal Chat
From: DeadStrings
To: StringTheory27
Date: September 3rd, 1997, 9:47 PM
